Did you ever have an experience where you went somewhere, did something, and yet when it was over, you felt like you hadn't been there at all?

That's what last night's 4-3 Cub loss to the Padres feels like this morning, basically because it was raining so hard for most of the game, it seemed as if it were taking place somewhere else than where I was sitting, hardly able to see most of the action under my umbrella in the left field corner. Except for the Typhoon Game in 2003, when it was far windier and colder than it was last night, I don't think I recall ever seeing any game played for that long (well over an hour) when it was raining that hard.

As a result, Khalil Greene's three-run homer and Jody Gerut's RBI double, all the San Diego scoring in one inning off Jason Marquis, was about all the two teams could muster; after the fifth inning there were only four baserunners (Geovany Soto, who singled in the 6th; SD's Edgar Gonzalez, who singled and doubled, and Aramis Ramirez, who walked).

It got so bad that Jeff, Howard and I finally gave up and left after the 7th -- I couldn't see any more, having to hold the umbrella so low, and the only thing of significance that we missed were three shutout innings thrown in relief by Michael Wuertz (finally! Lou doing something sensible to save his bullpen).

Incidentally, if you thought you saw me in the first inning holding up the big blue umbrella, you were correct. I received two text messages and three phone calls right after -- none of which I actually was able to answer, because as I discovered, somehow the ringer on my phone got turned off.

Anyway, here are some photos from last night, and after that I'll have some more things to say about something that's been debated at length here over the last couple of days. Thankfully, the Cardinals also lost last night, so the Cubs remain a game ahead in first place.

LF corner; you can see my blue & white umbrella in the lower portion of the photo

Cubs pitchers have abandoned the bullpen for the dry oasis of the dugout

Right field bleacher fans raise umbrellas

The hard-working ground crew tries to keep the infield dry

Click on photos to open a larger version in a new browser window. All photos by David Sameshima

It does appear, from everything I have heard and confirmed, that the Cubs are indeed going to sign Jim Edmonds, possibly today, and that he may be in uniform at Wrigley Field on Thursday. I simply do not understand this at all. This move is clearly driven by Lou Piniella, who seems to have a fixation: "I have to get another lefthanded power bat." Well, Lou, got news for you: Jim Edmonds isn't a lefthanded power bat any more. He's got a .233 SLG this year -- that's lower than three of the Cubs' starting pitchers (Z, .481; Ted Lilly, .364, Jason Marquis, .313). It's lower than Felix Pie's SLG (.286), the player who Edmonds will likely replace on the roster. Why not just play Pie and see how he can do? As I noted yesterday, Pie hasn't started more than four games in a row this season. How can you possibly get into any sort of rhythm, learn the pitchers, etc. if you're not getting at-bats?

Pie's defense and baserunning are also far superior to Edmonds' at this stage of their respective careers.

I really don't know why I even have to write these things. They should be obvious. I have consistently complimented Lou Piniella in this space, most recently on Sunday when he completely outmanaged Arizona's Bob Melvin. But Lou seems to have a blind spot where Pie is concerned. Do I think Felix Pie is a superstar, or even going to be one? No, I don't. But I think he can be a serviceable platoon center fielder, and if he played against RHP and Reed Johnson against LHP, the Cubs would be just fine.

The signing of Edmonds smacks of moves the Cubs used to make under the Wrigleys, a dying ownership group that tried to grab hold of names they had heard of, trying to squeeze one more drop of blood out of the proverbial turnip. I can't count the number of times in the 1970's that Cub management traded for or signed fading stars, but here are some of the most egregious examples:

1973: bought Rico Carty from Texas on August 13. Carty won the NL batting title three years earlier when he hit .366 with 25 HR and 101 RBI. But by 1973 he was done, couldn't run any more, and was a DH that the Cubs tried to force into the outfield. He hit .214/.276/.257 in 22 games for the Cubs (sound a bit Edmonds-like to you?) and the Cubs then sold him to the A's. Later he was picked up by Cleveland, where he had some decent years as a DH.

1978: traded for Davey Johnson on August 6, five years after his 43-HR season for Atlanta. Johnson did hit .306/.393/.490 in 49 Cub at-bats, but he was done, never playing after that.

1979: bought Ken Henderson on June 28, five years after he had a 95-RBI season for the White Sox. He was only 33, but hit .235/.361/.333 in 81 Cub at-bats. That prompted them to bring him back the following year, where he hit .195/.333/.305 in 82 AB before being released on July 20.

1980: traded Karl Pagel (the 1970's version of David Kelton and Jason Dubois) for Cliff Johnson on June 23. Johnson had some power -- he had hit .270/.347/.520 with 20 HR in only 304 AB for the Yankees and Indians the year before -- but the problem was, he didn't really have a position. He came up as a catcher, but was terrible defensively. He played first base OK, but the Cubs had a first baseman (Bill Buckner). During days when Buckner was hurt (often), they tried Johnson there... and also played him three games in left field, which was an absolute disaster. That whole team was; it lost 98 games. The Cubs sent Johnson to Oakland for a minor league pitcher who never panned out and he had some decent years left as a part-time DH, mostly for Toronto.

1981: the most laughable example, and one I'll never forget. Jack Brickhouse started one broadcast in June by telling us how excited he was that the Cubs had picked up a former star outfielder, and then we learned who it was: Bobby Bonds, purchased from the Rangers, making the Cubs his eighth team in seven years. In his very first game as a Cub on June 4, 1981, he got injured in the field in the bottom of the first inning, breaking his wrist, and was out for two months. He hit .215/.323/.380 in 45 games and retired.

The point is, why go back to the bad old days? Of the five Cub teams mentioned above, none of them had winning records and only three of them (1973, 1978, 1979) even marginally contended. The 2008 Cubs are already the best team in their division and are winning games without making moves. I'm not going to say anything about Jim Edmonds' supposed bad clubhouse presence or the way he allegedly hotdogs every catch he makes or the fact that he used to be a Cardinal (who cares? He isn't any more); those may be factors in whether you acquire a player, but the bottom line is: Jim Edmonds at this stage of his career is a bad baseball player. The Cubs may be looking to catch "lightning in a bottle" as they did in 1998 when they signed Gary Gaetti. But Gaetti had hit .265/.339/.454 for the Cardinals with 11 HR in 306 AB when St. Louis inexplicably released him on August 14, 1998, and the Cubs actually needed a third baseman at the time. Five days later the Cubs signed him and arguably, without him they wouldn't have won the wild card.

That's not the case this year. The Cubs can win without Jim Edmonds. He's not a good fit. Jim Hendry, please. Stay away.

Stop me if you've heard this one before: the Cubs go out to an early lead, then cough it up because the other guys got ONE key hit, and then the Cubs have numerous chances to get back in the game, but can't get that one key hit themselves, stranding runners all over creation.

You didn't stop me, but that's pretty much the summary of last night's frustrating 5-3 Cub loss to the Cardinals. This photo from cubs.com pretty much sums it up:

via chicago.cubs.mlb.com

A look of determination on Jason Marquis' face, probably just before he gave up the critical two-out, two-run double to Albert Pujols that broke the 2-2 tie in the fourth inning. For the rest of the night, it was play-catchup time. And in the seventh inning, the score now 5-2 Cardinals, the Cubs could have and should have gotten back into it -- loading the bases with nobody out and having the middle of the batting order up. Even Alfonso Soriano contributed, singling after Ronny Cedeno reached on a HBP. Ryan Theriot worked the count full and then sliced a single through the infield.

But D-Lee flied out, too shallow to score a run. Kosuke Fukudome's fly ball was deep enough to score Cedeno, but that's all the Cubs could muster against Tony LaRussa's two pitching changes -- got to give the Cardinals credit, so far rookie RHP Kyle McClellan has been lights-out. It's too early to know whether McClellan can keep this up all year, but he is one of the biggest reasons the Cardinals find themselves in first place. I'm still not convinced Todd Wellemeyer is going to be an effective starting pitcher for a full season, but last night, he did the job they needed him to do, and unlike Friday night, St. Louis' bullpen did its job.

And that's all the Cubs got, despite drawing six more walks and having runners all over the place. They really missed having Aramis Ramirez in the middle of the order last night.

Sometimes you have to tip your cap to the other guys. Jason Marquis was shaky again, and perhaps the key play of the game was the walk he issued to Adam Kennedy just before Pujols' two-out double. Kennedy is not an easy player to walk -- his lifetime OBA coming into last night's game was only .329 -- and those two runs were the difference. The Cardinals came through in a critical situation and the Cubs didn't. Those things are going to happen in a long season.

Positive sign: Sean Gallagher threw the last two innings, worked fast, threw strikes (and only 19 pitches total), and kept the game close. He looked far more confident than the scared-looking 22-year-old kid who put up an 8.59 ERA in eight appearances in 2007. If he keeps that up he may wind up in the rotation, if guys like Marquis continue to struggle.

That's enough. Let's move on to Cincinnati to face a team that's really having trouble and beat up on them, starting tonight.

Jason Marquis stood on the mound at Wrigley Field, alone on the field, tossing a baseball up and down in his hand. Up, down, up, down, several times. He did this while waiting for the umpires to shift positions and gear after plate umpire Jerry Crawford took ill during last night's 10-7 Cub loss to the Brewers.

Cubs players wait in the dugout for play to resume after the umpire delay

Eventually, Geovany Soto came out of the dugout and so did the rest of the Cubs and that's when Marquis, who had been shaky enough in the first couple of innings, completely fell apart. He wound up throwing 98 pitches in five innings, allowing ten hits and five runs, and none of the Cubs' relievers could provide any relief last night -- the only one who didn't have a run charged to him was Michael Wuertz, but he added to the carnage by walking in a run that got charged to Kevin Hart. Even the usually-reliable Jon Lieber got touched for Milwaukee's tenth run, after Mike Fontenot's bases-clearing double had turned a 9-4 apparent rout into a 9-7 "hey, maybe they can come back" score.

It wasn't to be, and although Lou Piniella had sharp words for his bullpen in his postgame press conference:

"Our pitching wasn't good tonight," Piniella said. "We've got to do a better job in the middle before we get to our short people. That's been a problem for awhile."

... that wasn't the main problem. The main issue last night was the fact that Ben Sheets also wasn't sharp after the delay; he wound up walking seven, but the Cubs left most of those runners on base, leaving seven in the first five innings. Had they taken advantage of those opportunities, they could have had Sheets bounced before the sixth, when he was eventually lifted for a pinch-hitter (having thrown 108 pitches), and gotten into the Brewers' 1,325-man bullpen -- which managed to shut the Cubs down in the 8th and 9th after Fontenot's double.

The other important thing last night was... well, let me tell you first about one of the funnier vendors I've seen. He walked by our section, a youngish man I hadn't seen before, carrying the metal hot-dog vending box, yelling, "Who wants a friggin' hot dog??" That generated both laughs and sales (not from me, since I had already had one earlier).

And that's the other thing. Speaking of friggin', it was friggin' cold last night. The official game-time temperature was 38, and though there was some waning sun in the western sky until it dipped below the buildings on Clark about 7:30, that sun never warmed anyone at Wrigley Field yesterday. The wind wasn't too strong -- Derrek Lee managed to loft his 8th HR of April, tying the team record for such things, into the LF bleachers in the third inning, making the score at the time 4-3 -- but it was just enough to make it so feeling my fingers and toes wasn't really possible after about that time. Despite the cold, BCB reader steinmer and a friend of his stopped by in the late innings to say hi. They were some of the few who stayed -- once the score got to 9-4, the place emptied out pretty quickly. Well, except for the Human Air Raid Siren, who decided, since our section was empty, to stand there (mostly in our way) to yell for a few minutes, until we were rescued by a guy wearing a Fukudome sweatshirt who wanted him to come to his section. He left and we didn't see -- nor hear -- him again last night.

Positive note: there's nothing wrong with Geovany Soto. He had two hits last night, including a double, and continues to pound the ball really hard.

There's not much more that can be said about this loss -- the Cubs' first of the season when they have scored four or more runs. Lou, in his press conference, gave credit to the Brewers, who do, after all, have some pretty good hitters, and not just Prince Fielder and Ryan Braun, who are both off to slow starts. Corey Hart (who I advocated the Cubs acquiring a year ago) had three hits including a double and a triple; Bill Hall singled three times and had two RBI, and Mike Cameron, in his first game of the year following a 25-game suspension, also had three hits. Sometimes you just have to give credit to the other guys.

With Ryan Dempster, who has been solid all year, and Carlos Zambrano, who at last is pitching like the ace we need him to be (and with his sinker working as it did when he first burst onto the scene in 2003), going tonight and tomorrow, I still like the Cubs' chances of winning this series.

Did you know Wrigley Field had a Jumbotron? Well, it doesn't, of course, but it now does have this large monitor on the side of the camera house in CF:

Finally, Felix Pie was involved in a scary-looking collision with Rickie Weeks in the second inning, and didn't get up for a couple of hold-your-breath moments. He probably just got the wind knocked out of him, as he stayed in the game. David caught the aftermath:

Click on photos to open a larger version in a new browser window. All photos by David Sameshima

Those flags will fly above the Wrigley Field scoreboard for the rest of the Cubs' road trip; after the team returns, the flags will be autographed by the entire team and be auctioned off at cubs.com.

That's the good news from today. The bad news, of course, is that SBN was down all day -- once again, we apologize for the extended outage and we appreciate your patience. Or maybe that was good news, because I can only imagine the angst that would have been seen here in the game thread during the disastrous bottom of the 8th in the Cubs' 4-2 loss to the Rockies, snapping their winning streak at six.

There was still some good that came out of today's game -- Jason Marquis threw seven solid innings, allowing just two runs and striking out four. Even though the Cubs lost, the seven-inning outing was very important, because with the extra-inning games of late, the bullpen has been in danger of burnout. Only one reliever -- Kevin Hart -- was used today. Hart deserved a better fate than his first loss of the season. After allowing a leadoff double to Matt Holliday, Hart got Garrett Atkins to ground out. Holliday took third, and Brad Hawpe was intentionally walked. So far so good, right? Hart then got the slumping Troy Tulowitzki to hit a DP ball to Ronny Cedeno -- but his flip to Ryan Theriot was bobbled, Holliday scored, and the Rockies put it away with another run after the second out was finally recorded.

It wasn't because Cub fans didn't fill Coors Field for another day -- I was amazed at the number of blue shirts I could see in the stands. I doubt the Rockies would have drawn 32,791 on a Thursday afternoon in April if not for Cubs fans.

These two-game series, one against the Mets and one against the Rockies, are strange not only for their brevity, but because they were both night games followed by day games -- each being two games played in less than 24 hours. It's almost as if the Mets and Rockies were ships passing us in the night, hardly to be seen again. Colorado comes to Wrigley Field in about a month, at the end of May, but the Mets won't be seen by the Cubs till the season is in its final week. Those games could wind up being really important.

I was out for a while this afternoon and thus listened to most of the first half of the game on the radio, the first time I've listened to a significant chunk of baseball via Pat & Ron this season. As most of you know, though I love Ron Santo for his Cub support and fandom, I've never liked his radio style that much -- personally, I prefer an analyst who gives more, well, analysis. That said, I know many people do love Ron for exactly who he is. I mention him because for the first time, I thought he sounded really tired -- and not just because it was a day game after a night game. Ron will be 68 in June and I hope his health holds up. This team has a chance to be something really special and I want him around to see every inning.

After a winning streak this long gets snapped, about all you can say is: it happens. Go out there and get 'em starting tomorrow night in Washington -- the Nationals are really bad struggling. Even Jay Leno noticed, making this recent joke:

"46,000 people showed up to see the Pope in the Washington Nationals' ballpark. He beat the Nationals 15-1. … To make sure the crowd did not get unruly they cut off beer sales after the 7th commandment."

Finally, when I stopped by Wrigley Field to take the photos of the flags this afternoon, I found them in the process of filming a commercial with a large group of kids on Waveland:

What a strange day.

It was cloudy. Then drizzling. Then sunny, on a day the forecasters swore up and down the sun would make no appearances. Then it started to rain, very lightly -- which made the three twentysomethings in front of us very happy, even when I told them (kidding!) that it would cost them $10 to sit under the big blue & white umbrella. By game's end fog was starting to roll in off the lake.

And Jason Marquis pitched like the guy we knew last April and May, shutting down the Pirates on six hits through six innings, striking out seven, doubling in a run, and the Cubs annihilated the Pirates 13-1 on a twelve-hit attack that included no fewer than ten walks (yes, count 'em, ten, clogging up the bases in the sixth inning, which then got unclogged on another bases-loaded walk, a sac fly and a two-run single by Ronny Cedeno.

Told you it was a strange day. The Cubs came out rocking in the first inning, taking the lead 2-0 on a Derrek Lee HR. Really, we could have all gone home then, because that lead would be enough (yes, of course, I know it doesn't work that way). D-Lee is now leading the major leagues in HR with 7, and last year he hit his seventh HR on July 15. Clearly, he's back to near-2005 form -- and that's great news for this offense, which isn't missing Alfonso Soriano at all (4-1 since Soriano's bunny-hop injury last Tuesday). Just sayin'.

Ryan Theriot, Geovany Soto and Cedeno all had two hits today, and Daryle Ward got his first hit of the year to cap the scoring, a two-run HR off rookie Pirates reliever Evan Meek. "Meek" is what the Pirates have been against the Cubs this season, losing all five games and looking mostly bad doing it. Tom Gorzelanny, who had such a fine year in 2007 and looked like he was going to lead a young Pirates staff to credibility this year, gave up seven runs for the second time this year to the Cubs. He got one more out this time than he did the first time, and his ERA jumped from 6.75 to 9.35. Ugly.

After Marquis, Kevin Hart threw a good inning but got in trouble in the 8th; after having thrown 33 pitches, he got pulled by Lou in favor of Michael Wuertz, who finished up uneventfully. Both Hart and Wuertz needed these good outings, as they have both been shaky lately, and this also saved the rest of the bullpen for tomorrow and the next week; the Cubs are in their first long stretch without a day off (13 consecutive days starting last Tuesday).

Other notes: Kosuke Fukudome made a nice running catch to end the fifth inning after the Pirates had scored what turned out to be their only run of the game on consecutive doubles. At 7-1, the game was probably in hand then but you wouldn't have wanted to see it get any closer than that.

I've said for a while that I thought the Giants were the worst team in baseball -- and they might, in fact, lose 100 games. But the Pirates aren't much better. What on Earth were they doing, putting Doug Mientkiewicz at third base in the sixth inning? Looking this up, I see that Mientkiewicz actually started a game at third last weekend, but before that had played third exactly once in his major league career -- in the ninth inning of a game his team was losing, coincidentally, 13-1. What is John Russell thinking? What plan does this team have? Hopefully, none anytime soon, as in this year's wacky schedule, they'll be back at Wrigley Field a month from now.

With the 13-run outburst, the second time this homestand the Cubs have scored 12 or more, they have now scored 98 runs in 17 games -- 5.76 per game. That's not likely sustainable over a long period, but at this moment the total is second in the majors (behind the Diamondbacks, pending other games tonight).

Back for a moment to the twentysomethings sitting in front of us. After a while listening to us talk and watching us keep score, they must have figured we knew some things. Mike & I got peppered with questions about Cub history -- "Who was hit by pitch the most times?" "Who's the all-time Cub RBI leader?" We wound up telling them about the recent history of Cub no-hitters, among other things, and left a BCB card, so if you guys are here -- welcome. Take off your shoes and stay a while.

I also met BCB readers TCobb1911 and... well, your friend whose posting name I can't remember. Nice to meet both of you. And incidentally, if you're wondering where David's photos are, he can't make every single game. He emailed to let me know he'll be at: all the rest of the weekend games, all night games except Mondays, and a couple of long homestands later in the year when he's taking vacation time. So I'd expect him to be at sixty or so games. He'll be in the park tomorrow.

Finally, rumor heard: the organization is very high on Jeff Samardzija, is pleased with his performance so far, and you may see him promoted to Triple-A very soon.

A strange day? Maybe. But also a productive one. Time to sweep these guys again, tomorrow.

Click here for my scorecard

All you need to know about last night's 10-2 Cubs loss to the Mariners is contained in this note from the above link:

Raul Ibanez added a line-drive, two-run shot barely missing an inflated cow atop the right-field fence.

That's not all that happened last night, of course (Seattle hitters pounded five other HR off Ted Lilly and Jason Marquis, and in less baseball-related news, Kosuke Fukudome was photographed next to a Las Vegas showgirl, looking extremely uncomfortable), but that note made me laugh, as did the HR itself when I saw it, which was just about the last thing I saw before going to sleep to get up for work this morning. Good thing, too.

Let's hope that what Marquis and Lilly did DOES "stay in Vegas", as the saying goes, because that's not a good sign if it doesn't. The only other Cub who pitched last night, Kevin Hart, threw a quiet scoreless inning. The linked article also says:

Manager Lou Piniella expects to use all of his bullpen over the two days in Las Vegas.

Matt Murton may be traded before tomorrow. Or not:

The Cubs don't want to rush the process, in part to make sure they get the best deal possible but also because an injury in one of the two exhibition games in Las Vegas could create a need for Murton on the roster.

Gordon Wittenmyer writes that Lou says both Sean Marshall and Carmen Pignatiello will pitch today, and I would also expect Kerry Wood to throw an inning. Meanwhile, remember Michael Wuertz? Quietly, he's had the best spring on the staff, throwing nine innings, allowing five hits and no runs, with no walks and 13 strikeouts. Lou, for his part, spent some down time "using some of the casino services:

Were the services kind to him? "The casino services were cooperative," replied Piniella, who likes to play the ponies at the sports book.

Ryan Dempster starts today against Seattle's Jarrod Washburn. The Cubs will be the "away" team today and bat first. As last night, there's radio in Chicago (WGN) and Seattle (KOMO), TV on WGN-TV and also MLB Audio and MLB.TV via MLB.com Mediacenter.

MLB.com Gameday (2007 version)

MLB.com Gameday (2008 version)

Discuss amongst yourselves.

PEORIA, Arizona -- Today's first inning, which lasted 42 minutes, featured two walks, eight hits including a three-run homer, an error, and nine runs scored. (Based on that pace, we should have been there for six hours.)

The other eight innings were played in a snappy two hours and eleven minutes; there were eleven more hits but only one more run scored, and at one point fifteen consecutive Padres were retired (eleven by Jason Marquis and four by Carmen Pignatiello).

All of this added up to a 7-3 Cubs win over the Padres, and Marquis, who gave up hits to three of the first five batters he faced (and the three-run homer to Adrian Gonzalez, which went a long, long, looooong way), settled down and looked really sharp until he reached a pitch count with one out in the fifth. He had just struck out Luis Rodriguez, and Lou came out to get him and I said to Jeff, sitting next to me (he had awakened long enough from his nap in the sun to watch what was going on), "Why take him out? He was on a roll!"

But, Pignatiello was sharp -- allowing only a single to Gonzalez in his 1.2 innings -- and now that Scott Eyre reported tightness in his elbow (perhaps accounting for the bad outing he had yesterday), Pignatiello has new hope of making the major league roster for Opening Day. His outing today, another solid one, certainly didn't hurt his chances any.

Greg Maddux was awful today. He really had nothing -- the first five batters he faced reached base, although his SS, Khalil Greene, did him no favors by booting Eric Patterson's ball leading off the game. Uncharacteristically, though, Maddux walked two batters in the first (Derrek Lee and Kosuke Fukudome), and when Ryan Theriot blasted a double to deep CF after two were retired, clearing the bases, the Cubs had a 6-0 lead (only one of the runs in the first and two of the seven overall was earned). Maddux left after the fourth inning, walking down the RF line to the Padres clubhouse to a large round of applause.

After that, Jessica, this site's #1 Maddux fan, who had been sitting ten rows behind the plate, came out to the LF lawn to join us. I told her, "It was your fault. He was too nervous seeing you sitting so close." She rolled her eyes.

In addition to Marquis' solid pitching performance, he also had two hits. This will likely increase his trade value, since I have heard that there's no way Rich Hill is getting sent to Iowa (even though he has an option year left). Hill has a lot of work to do on his mechanics, apparently, but his slot in the rotation is not in jeopardy.

The crowd of 12,035 at Peoria Sports Complex was one of the largest I have ever seen there, and it had to be at least half Cubs fans; they all gave a huge ovation when Kerry Wood trotted in from the bullpen to throw the 7th inning. Though not as dominant as yesterday, he threw an efficient inning, giving up a single but getting Josh Bard to end the inning on a nasty breaking ball. I presume that shortly, we'll hear that Wood has been named closer. Bob Howry, who had a shaky start to his spring, threw a 1-2-3 ninth inning. Best of all, Cubs pitchers issued only one walk today (by Tim Lahey, in the 8th inning).

Visible beyond the stands behind first base, opposite from where we were sitting on the LF lawn, was smoke from a large brush fire near Avondale, in the southwest part of the valley.

Micah Hoffpauir played right field again today, and had his first fielding chance at that position -- a routine fly ball by Paul McAnulty that he fielded routinely. Despite his great spring, I doubt he has any chance to make the 25-man roster, but if he can play even an average RF, he has a chance to become a callup if there are any injuries.

Which, of course, we hope there aren't, or that they're minimal, at least.

Finally, this article on the Cubs website chronicles the visits from various ex-Cubs on the Padres today to their former teammates (there were four in all). Here's one thing I learned from that link that I did not know before, about Michael Barrett's time with the Cubs last year:

Interesting. A full share? Pretty generous, I'd say. Till tomorrow.

SCOTTSDALE, Arizona -- Peoria Stadium is one of the best, if not THE best, of the Cactus League parks, and the Cubs will make their second trip of the spring there today (they played the Mariners, who share the complex with the Padres, at Peoria earlier this month).

One thing that's changed about the Cactus League -- you don't see teams as often as years ago, because there are more teams. When the Cactus League was only eight teams, you'd see teams four, or sometimes even six, times a spring. Now, often you only see teams twice, and this spring the Cubs will only see the Giants, A's, Brewers and Angels more than that (not including the Las Vegas games vs. the Mariners). Next year, when the Dodgers (and possibly the Reds) come to Arizona, it will likely be even fewer teams seen more than twice.

Not complaining, mind you -- just an observation. And because of this schedule, I haven't seen the Brewers play yet -- and won't until the final day of Cactus League play on Thursday. But both Paul Sullivan and Chris DeLuca remind us that the Brewers aren't just going to lay down and let the Cubs take the NL Central. There are good quotes from players on both teams and also from Jim Hendry in those articles.

We'll find out soon, too -- the Cubs and Brewers play six of their first 28 games against each other, all at Wrigley Field (thanks, schedule-makers, for making them play in cold weather instead of in the dome in Milwaukee).

Bruce Miles tells us that Kerry Wood's back-to-back outings have been moved up; he'll go today after his strong inning yesterday, and:

Absolutely. I believe Wood will be named closer by tomorrow, and I couldn't be happier, both for Wood, who has worked hard and always been a class act, and for the team -- because Wood looks like the real deal as closer.

Gordon Wittenmyer writes of a "standoff" he had with Lou Piniella on Friday. Reads more like a milquetoast little discussion; the most useful information is this quote from Lou:

Actually, Lou does have a backup, of sorts, if you look at the lineup he put on the field on Thursday: for days he wants to sit Pie, he can play Matt Murton in RF and Kosuke Fukudome in CF.

Jason Marquis will face Greg Maddux today. Also appearing on the mound for the Padres will be Trevor Hoffman, Wil Ledezma and Enrique Gonzalez. We know that Kerry Wood will throw for the Cubs; I assume we'll also see Carlos Marmol since he hasn't gone since Wednesday.

No TV again today -- but that's the last time this month. All the rest of the spring games are on TV (Monday/Tuesday on CSN; Wednesday on MLB.TV; and Thursday/Friday/Saturday on WGN). There is radio coverage on WGN, XPRS, XM 184, a Spanish-language broadcast on San Diego station XEMO, and at the MLB.com Mediacenter.

MLB.com Gameday